


You Are Alive

by Sevidri



Category: Original Work
Genre: All Hail Our Arboreal Overlords, Gen, Horror Elements, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-25 19:44:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19752553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sevidri/pseuds/Sevidri
Summary: “I—” Jenny started, then broke off, trying to concentrate. “I remember the forest. I went there because— There was a dare. Sofie said it was cursed, or— or something. She said I wouldn’t— ” She paused to take a deep breath and focus. Her chest didn’t move. Nothing moved. She couldn’t feel the air rushing through her throat no matter how much she concentrated and that meant—“Oh, god,” she tried to gasp, but it came out in the same measured, reverberating tone as before.  “Am I— Am I dead?”A trip to the forest has an unforeseen outcome.





	You Are Alive

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frecklebombfic (frecklebomb)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frecklebomb/gifts).
  * Inspired by [[Podfic] I am Here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16420904) by [frecklebombfic (frecklebomb)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frecklebomb/pseuds/frecklebombfic). 



> This is a (very) late birthday present for the wonderful frecklebombfic! It is also a remix of one of their amazing podfics "I am Here", which everyone should go listen to if you haven't already (and re-listen if you have), and was created as a treat for remixapod 2019. I hope you enjoy it, darling!
> 
> Many thanks to idella for betaing and helping me make this work!

Jenny woke up gradually. The sun was just coming up, filtering through the branches above her in sprinkles of light. She admired the beautiful scenery without blinking. 

“Ah, good morning,” a deep voice said slowly. It was coming from somewhere above her, but Jenny didn’t look up to see who was talking. Her head felt heavy, her body stiff with sleep.

“What happened?” she asked, and her voice was different somehow. It echoed in her head in a way it never had before.

“You do not remember,” the voice said. “It is alright. Most do not. It will come back to you in time.” 

Jenny tried to order her thoughts, but her mind felt sluggish, like it was difficult to access parts of it. She tried to think back to the day before, to the evening at least, but all she got were impressions. The fluttering of wings above her in the foliage, the hooting of owls in the depth of the forest, green moss against the black of her shoes, and the uneven earth underneath her soles. 

She flexed her toes to recapture the feeling and found that she couldn’t. Her hands stayed anchored to her side when she tried to lift them. Her fingers didn’t twitch.

“What— What did you do to me? What’s happening?” Her voice shook, the effect amplified by the new echoing quality until it felt like her whole body was shaking with it.

“Be calm, little one,” the voice soothed. “What do you remember?” 

“I—” Jenny started, then broke off, trying to concentrate. “I remember the forest. I went there because— There was a dare. Sofie said it was cursed, or— or something. She said I wouldn’t— ” She paused to take a deep breath and focus. Her chest didn’t move. Nothing moved. She couldn’t feel the air rushing through her throat no matter how much she concentrated and that meant—

“Oh, god,” she tried to gasp, but it came out in the same measured, reverberating tone as before. “Am I— Am I dead?”

The voice laughed, or she thought it was supposed to be laughter. It reminded her of rustling, like leaves brushing against each other. The sound was all around her, sinking down into the ground and drifting up into the foliage, and the branches far above her started shaking along, leaves murmuring. It was as if the noise, the movement of it reached all the way down into her bones. The eeriness of the feeling should have scared her, but instead she was filled with a soft sort of joy, a giddy playfulness, that did not at all fit her thoughts. 

“You are not dead, child,” the voice reassured, and it too sounded like rustling leaves to Jenny now, like laughter. “Just altered.” 

“But I— I can’t move,” Jenny said. “I can’t breathe. How can I be alive if I…” She trailed off, letting the question hang in the air. Or maybe not in the air. Her mouth hadn’t moved. There was no way she had spoken aloud, but still she was sure she was communicating somehow. 

“Yes, you cannot move. You do not need to breathe, you do not have a heartbeat, but yet you are here, you are alive, and you can feel.”

Jenny wanted to get angry, wanted to shoot something hurtful back at the voice and their useless platitudes, but now that she wasn’t so distracted anymore, her mind not so foggy with sleep and focused on all the wrong senses, she could feel it. Not her own body, but the sunlight warming her skin, the air cool and refreshing between her fingers. The ground below her was alight with movement, with the tiniest of vibrations that told her about the earthworm currently burrowing across between her feet as much as about the group of deer grazing a couple of yards away.

“Do you see now?” the voice asked again, and there was no sound, no loud noise, just vibrations flowing from the voice to her body. Jenny tried to stretch her fingers again and this time the leaves directly above her rustled. Or maybe the ones right next to her. Her consciousness was not confined to one place, but to a network, a tapestry of places she could inhabit or ignore as she pleased. 

Her roots burrowed deep into the ground as she replied.

“I understand.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed my slightly creepy tree transformation fic! 
> 
> Since this work is a remix, I wanted to say a bit about my inspiration and writing process here, but please be warned that it does contain spoilers for the remixed podfic.
> 
> I was really inspired by frecklebombfic's house voice, by the sighing, almost wooden quality of it, and the creaky slowness. It just really reminded me of the Ents from Lord of the Rings, so, obviously, trees! It also helps that both frecklebombfic and I really love trees in general, and sentinent trees in particular, and don't shy away from the more horror elements of that trope. 
> 
> To be fair, I didn't lean into the horror potential of this fic as much as I had originally planned, because halfway through writing it I found myself going "But she's a tree now, that's so cool!" and thought the excitement might also overtake the fear for Jenny once she actually lets herself experience things in this new way.
> 
> Another thing I really liked about the podfic was the juxtaposition of the old house voice and the excited/scared and comparatively young voice and narration of the paranormal researcher, so I aimed to recreate a bit of that dynamic in my own story. 
> 
> Anyway, those are my main points but if you have any questions or comments I would be delighted to hear them!
> 
> You can also find me on twitter as [Sevidri](https://twitter.com/sevidri)!
> 
> I hope you have a lovely day!


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